La Salle Academy hosted an iSTEM (Invigorating Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics) day for Year 6 students from St Patrick’s School Lithgow, St Joseph’s School Portland, and St Joseph’s School Oberon on Friday, June 29.

The main reason for hosting the iSTEM day was to help the Year 6 students gain an understanding of science, technology, engineering and maths. It was not a day for competition, according to La Salle science coordinator Jason MacKinnon, it was a day for fun and learning.

“We’re just trying to promote a good science education for everyone,” Mr MacKinnon said.

Although La Salle offers iSTEM, there are not enough students interested to form a full Year 9 class.

Mr MacKinnon recruited his Year 8 science class to help throughout the day in the hope that it may spark enough interest to make them consider it when making their subject selection at the end of the year.

The day consisted of various experiments, including one in which magnesium was heated up. Once a certain temperature was reached, it shone a bright white light. The purpose of this experiment was to show all the students how strong a chemical reaction could be, and the blinding light was proof of that. 

Another experiment included an electrical circuit, some wires, and a lightbulb, and the students had to figure out how to make the bulb light up without any help.

“They have actually got to put it together themselves. We are not giving them any guidance at all. They just have to do it,” Mr Mackinnon said.

These activities were among many others, including paddle pop experiments, test tubes with flour and food colour, and computer generating spreadsheets collected the results throughout the day.

Mr MacKinnon said it was important for students to upskill in demand areas for employment.

“There is shift now from menial to technology-based work. Science and technical skills are more in demand,” he said.